Content repurposing is your hidden online marketing gem

Every marketer and small business owner knows how much time and effort goes into a piece of content.

It isn’t just writing a blog post—it is coming up with the idea, researching, developing, linking, keyword optimizing, and finally posting and promoting even after the article is live.

Coming up with a theme alone can be challenging, so why not get five or even ten pieces of content out of a single idea?

Content repurposing, which is ultimately using one idea or piece of content to make several different content pieces, is really the hidden gem of online marketing. Not only is this kind of content generation great for SEO, but it is also extremely valuable for online businesses looking to make the most of their marketing efforts.

Once they spend time and effort developing a piece of content, they can use it as a launching point for other types of content that can be easily generated.

WordStream points out that content repurposing does not just mean making the most of your efforts in content development, but also in helping you reach a new audience and bringing back content-favorites and successes.

Let’s look a those two aspects a little more closely:

Reach a Different Audience. You may already realize that different social media platforms reach different audiences in terms of content sharing, but the way that content is presented can also have a big impact on the kind of audience that it targets. For example, some users may be more likely to watch a video, while others benefit from an infographic or a webinar. By using the same message across multiple platforms in different forms you are expanding your target audience based on consumption preferences.

UseOldies but Goodies! Sometimes content is just a hit and the kind of success a text piece gets exceeds expectations. If a particular piece of blog content got a lot of shares, likes, and comments, this is a good sign that you should think about repurposing it. While you can start repurposing a piece of content as soon as you post it, there is something to be said for dusty content that got a lot of attention a few months ago. Go with what you think your followers will enjoy in a different format.

Turning Text into Something New & Different

As mentioned above, you can begin to repurpose content as soon as you post it to your blog, or use something you posed a while back that gained a lot of attention.

They key is not necessarily what content you choose to repurpose, as much as it is about turning it in to something new and different. Here are just some of the ways that you can turn text blog content into something different:

PDF How-To Guides

You can take excising blog content and turn it in to a downloadable how-to guide for your clients. These PDF guides can be more than just text, you can incorporate visually appealing details to take concepts and present them in a new, tangible, and understandable way.

Make a Video

YouTube and Vimeo have become extremely popular platforms for hosting videos online. One of the most productive ways to repurpose content is actually turning your blog post into a video.

If you turn your content into a 3-5 minute script, you are set up nicely for an instructional video that repurposes content you’ve already created! Say you already have 20 or even 50 blog posts written, you are nicely set up for an entire YouTube channel.

Since many people prefer watching videos to reading content, you are also setting yourself up for an expanded audience.

Visual Presentation Slides

Using a platform like SlideShare (popular with LinkedIn and other social media sharing sites) you can use you content as a starting point for visual presentations. Turning your content into this specific format can allow people to take in the information at their own pace in a visually appealing way.

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Create an Infographic

Infographics have really become the trend in marketing visuals for a reason—they present information in a fun, clear, and aesthetically appealing manner. You can easily create these kind of graphics based on previous blog content you’ve written.

Platforms like Canva make it extremely easy to produce without a background in visual design. You can learn more about how to create awesome infographics here.

Start a Podcast

If you’re feeling like there is no way that you can use one piece of content to create all of these different repurposed forms, then fortunately, you’re wrong. Why? Because people tend to have their personal preferences for how they like to take in new information!

For example, many really enjoy listening to podcasts over reading or watching a video. Not only that, it is a great way to get your content shared. You can submit your recorded podcast to the following sources to get even more exposures and shares:

Host an Interactive Webinar

Having a live audience to share your information with is the trend at the moment (think Facebook Live or SnapChat stories). Webinars can be promoted to your email-marketing list, social media channels, and can get a lot of attention depending on the kind of information you are providing.

Try to use content that would be most informative and make the biggest impact with you audience. Remember that you will have to create a visual and auditory presentation to share, and although it is live, you will want to have it planned out well in advance.

The key to webinars is getting a large active audience, so you will have to do some promoting well in advance and up to the very last minute to achieve the best results.

The Takeaway

There are so many ways to repurpose content and this list is by no means exhaustive—you can get as creative as you want!

The important thing to remember is that repurposing content is a hidden gem in marketing because it takes your hard work and efforts to the next level, and you are able tog et much more reward out of your research and preparation.

Each piece of content is going to have different potential—some may be able to be repurposed seven different ways, while you may only get three out of another. This practice is extremely valuable for marketing efforts, and ultimately SEO and best-content practices!

Do you have any other ways that you have repurposed content? Let us know in the comments section below!

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer for HigherVisibility, a full service SEO agency, and a contributor to SEW. You can connect with Amanda on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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